When it comes to prosecuting hate crimes, Colorado didn’t have a great track record until they amended Colorado’s bias-motivated crimes statute.

In this bonus episode of Systemic, we look at how Melissa Hall, a Black parent who was racially abused while volunteering on school premises, tested this new amendment in court.

Host and producer: Jo Erickson

Leaders in Denver Public Schools acknowledge existing inequities in schools and are trying to address them. They recognize the lack of people of color in leadership positions has created policies that led to disparities between white students and students of color. To redress this problem, DPS created a leadership program. But while it solves some problems, it may create new ones. In this episode we follow educator Paulina Lerma as she attempts to break the glass ceiling to become a Latina principal.

The number of Black teachers leaving the profession is rising. Kevin Adams is a social studies teacher working in Denver Public Schools. He’s very popular with students and parents, but struggles with microaggressions from his colleagues. Like many Black teachers, he thinks about quitting education. Why are Black teachers walking away? Kevin and his friend started a podcast to put a spotlight on the hard truths about why teachers of color are leaving the profession. In this episode we follow Kevin Adams as he navigates a stream of microaggressions.

The dramatic exit of the superintendent and changes to school equity policies is cause for concern for Naomi Lopez, a speech therapist in Colorado Springs School District 11. Lopez works with children in special education who require services from the equity department. Without the equity leadership team overseeing the work, she fears her students will miss vital resources that assist in their academic goals. Naomi’s problems grew when two board members expressed transphobic messages on social media, and she feared for the safety of her gender fluid child. We follow Naomi Lopez as she tries to steer the board toward equity policies while addressing her concerns that her gender-fluid child is a target because of the school board's anti-LGBTQ comments.

Racial tension has been building in Colorado Springs School District 11 for some time. School volunteer Melissa Hall was racially abused by a white parent in the school parking lot. But tension escalated when the superintendent abruptly resigned and a school board member made racial comments toward Black men who attended a school board meeting. In this episode we follow Melissa Hall, a Black parent, as she feels the full impact of withholding equity policies as a school volunteer and a mother of four kids.

Conversations about diversity, equity and inclusion found their way into schools, classrooms, and school board meetings over the past few years. But fixing an entire education system isn’t simple.

Systemic, hosted and reported by Jo Erickson, is back for Season 2. This season, teachers, parents, students and administrators of color are asking hard questions about the American education system.

What topics get to be included in the curriculum? How can educators make schools a place where every family feels like they belong? And how do we keep students safe?

Systemic tells the stories of those who fight injustice as they attempt to dismantle the status quo. In each episode, you’ll hear from a person from a diverse community in Colorado trying to make a difference in education. In the audio diaries and interviews, you’ll hear their triumphs and struggles. And why they refuse to stand idly by and prop-up a broken system.

The podcast returns January 10. Follow the show wherever you listen so you don’t miss an episode.

This spring, the nation held its breath as Derek Chauvin, the officer charged with murdering George Floyd, went on trial. Was the officer a single bad apple, or a symptom of a broken system? Nekima Levy-Armstrong is a former law professor who gave up her career to become a full-time activist. Since then, she’s spent the better part of a decade pushing for police reform, and played a pivotal role in the movement that followed Floyd’s death. In this year when rethinking law enforcement is at the center of a global conversation, Nekima is working to hold those in power accountable for change.

On this episode, we follow an officer in leadership who’s working to reform policing from the top down. As director of public safety in the small community of Franklin Township, New Jersey, she’s taking a hard look at the diversity of her department, and addressing how officers interact with the community they serve.

Against the backdrop of George Floyd’s death and nationwide Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, Colorado legislators won praise for swiftly passing an ambitious law meant to punish future abuses by police officers. But part of the genesis for that law began in 2019 amidst a different set of police protests after the death of a Black man in Colorado Springs. That moment left a grieving family searching for answers in a complicated and frustrating legal system.

Meet two Black police officers — a young officer in the Minneapolis suburbs and a veteran sheriff's deputy in Colorado Springs — working to protect their communities. In the wake of George Floyd's death and the nationwide protests that followed, these two women offer a glimpse of what it's like to serve in law enforcement at a time when policing itself is under fire. They also speak frankly about how their jobs and their identities sometimes come into conflict.